PERRY: Fatalistic flaw in letting gun-nuts and gunmen run the show

Holmes’ brutal attack was not an act of God, it was an act of inhumanity

So here’s the deal, Aurora: Easy access to incredibly lethal guns is here to stay, and we’re going to have to live with the fact that people like James Holmes will be walking into yet another crowded theater or store and slaughtering more people.

Sorry, but I’m still not OK with that even if most of our elected leaders are.

A few weeks after Holmes went out the back door of the Century Aurora 16 theater and returned with two rifles and a handgun, butchering 12 people and injuring about 50 more, Colorado just isn’t interested in gun laws that could prevent another massacre.

It’s not that people don’t care whether they can never really feel safe at or away from home. It’s just that they’ve been brainwashed by a misguided and massive pro-gun lobby that insists guns are not the problem here.

Of course they’re the problem. Holmes didn’t drive a car into the theater. He didn’t kill or maim 70 people with a rogue blender. He did some simple online shopping and with the easy clicks of his mouse, and then later with the easy clicks of a trigger, forever changed Aurora and the lives of hundreds.

Becoming a notorious terrorist is a snap in the U.S these days.

I was so sure that after this calamity, the groundswell would be overwhelming for preventing creeps like Holmes from assembling click-and-serve arsenals. I was so wrong.

Republicans just say “no.” And Democrats blanch when asked about gun control, looking like I just pulled out a .45 caliber rather than just a question.

They know that even hinting about gun regs will draw the wrath of the NRA like crows to a carcass. And a now, a recent Denver Post poll only makes their fear palpable. The poll revealed that 56 percent of state residents don’t want new gun regulations in light of the July 20 massacre.

Why? Because most believe the bullcrap being shoveled out by elected officials that we just need to enforce existing gun laws to make ourselves safe.

Yeah? Tell that to those killed or wounded during Aurora’s Armageddon. Holmes didn’t break any laws. There are no laws preventing him or anyone else from buying insidiously lethal weapons in any quantity they want.

I know people do care about being safe in public places. But I think that we’ve just become a tired, fatalistic community that feels like we no more deserve the right to make it home from a night at the movies than we deserve the right to prevent tornadoes or earthquakes. Holmes’ brutal attack was not an act of God, it was an act of inhumanity.

I don’t know anyone who’s insisting that the government start grabbing guns, including me. I get it that ours is a society fascinated with guns. I read the blogs and advertisements for weapons that were engineered for one reason: to efficiently kill humans. Guns are sexy to millions of Americans. Guns are empowering. Guns are fun.

It’s lost on me. I and many others grew up seeing guns as tools used to hunt deer, kill varmints eating the chickens or put down sheep with broken legs. The weapon of choice for people like me was a rifle because you could aim it to do the job from a safe and effective distance. People who insisted on rifles that fired fast were either poor shots or poor sports. Handguns were for cops. AR-15 rifles, like the one that Holmes bought, and currently the best-selling gun in America? Those were for soldiers. Now, they’re for Christmas. There are no limits.

That’s all I’m asking for: reasonable limits. Why would watermelon hunters or farmers need hardened-case ammo or “conveniently sized” shotguns? Why would anyone insist on magazines that can dish up a hundred or more rounds in less time than it takes to watch a couple of TV commercials?

James Holmes knows why. I do, too.

Take a breath, Aurora. It doesn’t have to be all or none. Tune out the crazy talk from both sides here and demand lawmakers offer ways to better screen people who buy guns and ammo, especially online. We really can make sure that the guns and bullets keep flying all over this famously free land of ours, but not necessarily in our direction.

Since the American Revolutionary War forward guns have guaranteed your right to have and express your opinion irregardless how bias it may be or how much I don’t agree with you! It is gratifiying to see that one of the ideals I held when I served in the Military and as I have enjoyed a successful career in business and supported the Government of the United State by paying my taxes is being exemplified by the freedom you enjoy to editorialize for a more restrictive society to those freedoms we enjoy.

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Yet not one of the defenders of the second amendment in all cases at all times returned fire. Not one. It’s all good to pound your chests, but when seconds counted, the gun lobby was cringing under their chair like everyone else. IT IS the guns and keeping assault weapons out of the hands of lunatics is not an infringement on a “right” none of you had the guts to exercise.

Case Closed.

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I don’t see this as a gun control problem so much as a turning point in what responsibilities we have as citizens. Since we have funneled all of our powers into an elite body, it is now time to figure out how much we really care about who we are and what kind of country we want. The internet has given us a true “one out of many” presence, and we are at the apex of an ethical revolution. We cannot ignore what we don’t like without questioning who we are as human beings. We can no longer just keep being grateful for what we have; we have to do real work, each one of us. Once the sense of how irresponsible these gun “rights” are permeates our culture to the tipping point, this will go the way of segregation, etc.